And she’s one of the reasons why I love primary season. Some of the absolute ridiculousness spewing from the mouths of many of these candidates is astonishing.

During the “questionnaire” portion of her primary battle, Ms. Atanus said:

“God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions. Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it’s in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God.”

She also blamed diseases like autism and dementia, as well as natural disasters like tornadoes, on advancements in LGBT rights that are currently going on in this country.

In previous questionnaires for ABC Chicago she’s also denied the existence of global warming, and actually claimed that the 1929 stock crash never happened.

As expected, Republican leaders within the state are denouncing her comments.

But as insane as they sound, they didn’t shock me.

I’ve frequently met conservatives here in Texas who honestly believe diseases are God’s wrath for sin and that natural disasters are used by God to punish people.

There are tens of millions of conservatives who deny evolution and believe the Earth is just a few thousand years old, so are her comments really that far off from the beliefs many conservative voters have?

Prominent Republicans often claim homosexuality is a choice and that climate change is some global hoax – ridiculous beliefs aren’t exactly foreign to the GOP.

And while her comments are completely absurd, I’ve heard many religious leaders make these same claims.

Hell, Senator Ted Cruz’s father, a pastor, has made several ridiculous comments such as there’s no science behind evolution, and that communism and evolution go hand in hand. And this is the father of a U.S. Senator who’s a probable (and some say favorite) candidate for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.

But at the core of it, who really cares why someone opposes rights for the LGBT community? Whether it’s a more sane Republican who cites the Bible as their reason for opposing gay marriage, or it’s this woman who believes diseases and natural disasters are God’s vengeance for supporting gay rights, both individuals ignorantly oppose those rights based on cherry-picked religious beliefs.

So while Republican leaders might be distancing themselves from her comments, and people might mock them as ludicrous, personally I feel they represent exactly what many conservatives really believe in – ignorance about the LGBT community.

Because at the end of the day, denying someone equal rights is denying someone equal rights. It doesn’t really matter why you do it, just that you’re doing it.

And when it comes to denying homosexuals their equal rights, the Republican party and Ms. Atanus are in complete agreement.

Allen Clifton is a native Texan who now lives in the Austin area. He has a degree in Political Science from Sam Houston State University. Allen is a co-founder of Forward Progressives and creator of the popular Right Off A Cliff column and Facebook page. Be sure to follow Allen on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to his channel on YouTube as well.

Yes, she can claim she’s a perfect example of what God can do to you…He whacked her not once but several times with his ugly stick….Now everyone has to put up with her..

surfjac

the heartbreak of psoriasis.

sherry06053

Maybe she’s right, but just confused. Maybe God is teaching us that the invasion of Iraq was wrong. That’s why all of these horrible things are happening. Maybe he’s telling us to quit focusing on peoples’ personal lives and start helping the poor. Maybe he’s telling us that there isn’t enough money to put into the military and reconstruction after the natural disasters at the same time. After all, you can’t call it “national defense” when we have our presence all over the world and arm people who don’t have the same values that we have. We can not continue to force capitalism on other countries when it’s not working here. Maybe there is a message and it’s one of love and not exclusion and judgment. Think about it – look at all of the disasters (and I include the Tea Party in that list) that have occurred since the invasion of Iraq. Maybe they just have the reasons wrong.
I am an atheist, but Republicans are always wrong in their attitudes toward anyone who’s not white, straight and wealthy and they pray on the ignorant.

sccmstl

“Prey on the ignorant.”

BishopAndrewGeralesGentry

So
what have we done to deserve the polar vortex! work on the sabbath and
if so whose sabbath? can you really piss off God by the kind of sex you
have really, seems to me it is only when f..K the poor and the lonely
and the sick and the stranger and the
prisoner and the planet and manipulate folkes for profit and deny
people health care and housing that God gets pissed and when God does he
does not waste energy on tornadoes. Using the candidate’s mutant logic
I think perhaps tornadoes are signs of the Divine Displeasure in her or
him or whatever and in the entire Tea Party Republican Party which is
evil with an evil agenda and with many evil people, Now that is a cause
for truly being pissed off!!!

der spud

And now, on to more important news. Justin Beeber got a traffic citation.

robingee

What’s God punishing HER for? Because there’s a lot wrong with her situation.

thesquire1

This is pretty good – as long as they all gravitate to a central point they can be airlifted to some nice Island in the Pacific where they can be free of all us SINFUL folks !

Pipercat

Hey, support Newt! He of the moon colony challenge!!!

Michael Siever

I wish Arnold Schwarzenegger could have been there, so he could tell her “You are one ugly motherf***er”.

richard

I just don’t understand why a transgender man could so anti-LGBT. You would think that Mr. Atanus would be more sympathetic.

Bernie Gill

This women should be the poster child for the Abstinence Campaign!

Lawana

I love this. I hope the she keeps it up right into campaign time. There’s just nothing to compare to stupid. The Republican party just keeps turning out these people.

erica2910

She is just plain crazy.

Jeremy

She’s right up there with Bachmann and Palin.

Sunnysmom

She’s jockeying into first place with this garbage. lol

white trash religious teaparty

palin is sexy

meatwad_SSuppet

Palin sexy?? I guess if you enjoy Todds sloppy seconds. In my view, it is disgusting.

white trash religious teaparty

shes sexy—- and if U don’t think so that’s fine: I like slim pretty women with nice boobs and an insane thought process,
wanna see the sexiest woman EVER? GOOGLE “Marilyn lange” and see her photos

Ernie Sal

just did it……you’re right…..I remember her..…..born 1959 here.

Ernie Sal

Bachmann & Palin Overdrive…….you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

hermanprovi

I find it amazing that people of this ilk are ever even considered for public office!
So, all the destruction, that the WORLD is experiencing is “Gods punishment” because there are gay people in the world.
“God” is very ‘indiscriminate’ in HIS vengeance. How many non-gays are killed because all these disasters? The FACT, that A.I.D.S. was raging in Africa before it was introduced in the United States, is something that the religious-right [wrong] has decided to deliberately IGNORE!

Mrs D

All this Bible-thumping and proclaiming “God’s Love” and they never once question what kind of “loving” deity would murder innocents rather than deal with the issue in Its own omnipotent way. That’s right – your ‘God’ kills children whenever He’s pissed off and wants to prove a point! F*ck him and f*ck them for even thinking the rest of the world will march lockstep to that shit! The god they worship is a FRAUD who can’t even fight his own battles, so why should we give their god any credence whatsoever?

Sel

What did she do to make god angry enough to give her that appearance?

Bert

What did her parents do to deserve that man thing

Brotinn

I’m pretty sure natural disasters have been around since the beginning of time, regardless of what human beings are doing.

Dany Lynen Trujillo

She is just an idiot with money in the bank who, wants her 5 minutes of fame! If Illinois voters vote for her then they will get what they deserve!

bailey78

I agree 100%. But you know some YoYo thinks along the same lines as she does and they will vote for her. I just hope it is a select few.

Sunnysmom

Straight from the Fred Phelps playbook. Scary stuff.

bailey78

I believe she should seek help from a professional for the mental illness she is suffering from. Though there is no real cure for mental illness there are medications that help some to live a some what normal life.

Michelle Mills

Is she a member of westboro baptist? UGh

Michelle Mills

As the mother of a child with severe autism, I’m SO glad to finally find out that it’s other peoples homosexual behavior and abortions that have caused MY child to have autism…that makes me feel such relief to know it wasn’t that I’m a refrigerator mother…ugh…that is where her theory belongs!

Mike Minyen

Ever known anyone with cancer ? That’s God teaching them an important lesson.

white trash religious teaparty

another sexy sexy sexy GOD fearing CHRISTIAN who is pissed off at we who actually get a TON OF SEX—-
PRAISE JEEEEESUS and pass the tithing basket

It is a house, I’d assume that it is hers. This is not in District 9, It is District 10.

meatwad_SSuppet

Maybe your god is doing all these bad things because you supported the zionNazi LIARS wars.

Former Survivor Fan

in her further comments that didn’t make the article, she went on to explain that Superstorm Sandy was her god’s vengeance on New Jersey for electing Chris Christie. NJ didn’t learn their lesson and re-elected the monstrosity to a second term, so Atlantic City residents should be expecting plagues of locusts and frogs any day now.

Nick Wride

actually claimed that the 1929 stock crash never happened.>>>>>>>
No shit? This person is bordering on criminally stupid. And she wants to hold office? What’s really scary about a loon like this and Ted Cruz’s insane old man is that there are a lot of Americans out there that believe the same shit this woman does.

Nick Wride

And this angry, cruel and vindictive god, punishing America shit, is really getting old

Smith

At least she doesn’t deny the Holocaust . . . But at times I can’t help but wonder if all the recent natural disasters are in fact Mother Nature getting back at mankind.

MassVeteran

What an ugly man. But ignorance is bliss.

Maya

Hey, what if, tornados are a God’s punishment to people like you? Which is why they happen in a lot in Texas?

Happy Liberal

You know what God’s vengeance is for bigotry? Female pattern baldness. True story.

decreator

What a misinformed, know-nothing, manipulative idiot. It’s mind boggling when you think that, the people who elected her are even dumber! Smh

Gabriel Gentile

If all that is true, then why hasn’t god (yes, I used lowercase) made Norway sink to the bottom of the ocean?

Amanda4340

I’m kind of split on the Ted Cruz issue; he shouldn’t be allowed the nomination being from Canada and all, but it may make it pretty easy for a Democratic nominee if he is.

Gary Holewinski

God is so mad that oil companies are causing global warming that if we don’t switch to wind and solar power he is going to melt all the worlds ice and flood all the coastal cities.

Scott

Seriously, I thought she was a man in drag when I saw the picture.

DC

Sure (eye roll)… that’s why they are hitting states that are trying to implement anti-gay legislation

This one is beyond education to change her mind. She might as well DIE, and do everyone a great favor.

Dee Jean Kirk-How

Anyone who is running for an office for ALL people who point fingers honestly should be reconsidered to being for ANY party. I call these people “disillusion” and it is those people who need assistance, not a platform to show their own illnesses. True?

Yvonne Esformes Carney

And here is another Republican quote from Huckabee on Caitlyn Jenner that makes you want to scream. “I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in P.E.”